These Students Are Fighting Back Against Their Final Grades Being Made Public

More than 700 students have started a petition to get their school, the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England, to stop posting their final exam results for the entire school to see. Right now, the school sends students their final grades privately, and then displays them outside the school, as well as in local newspapers. The students say this is an invasion of their privacy, and promotes a culture of grade-shaming and over-the-top competition.

Students are hoping the "Our Grades, Our Choice" petition will allow for an opt-out clause so some can decide not to have their grades posted. They are worried that having grades posted could cause students with mental health issues to become more depressed or "trigger an episode." Nadia Ayed is a psychology student at Cambridge who signed the petition, and spoke to The Guardian about the effect the school's tradition has on students, saying: "Many individuals will find it distressing, and it can induce negative psychological effects, such as lower self-esteem, shame and anxiety, which hugely affect wellbeing."

If it was just the school and other students who saw the grades it might not be as bad, but students often take photos of grades and post them to social media, shaming their peers. This just leads to bullying and anxiety that can easy be avoided by getting rid of the tradition. A spokesman for the University of Cambridge told The Guardian: "This is an age-old tradition. If any student feels uncomfortable and wants their name to not be published they can ask their senior tutor for exemption."

Hopefully, this petition will make Cambridge follow in the footsteps of the University of Oxford, which stopped posting exam results in 2009 after almost half of students chose not to be included.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io

This commenting section is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page. You may be able to find more information on their web site.

A Part of Hearst Digital Media
Seventeen participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.